Successful Blog

Who Won’t Let Your Business Fail?

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We Need Someone Outside the System We’re In

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Some kids learn to ride a bike by just getting on one. They ride and fall down until the falling down part stops. Other kids have the luxury of someone who runs alongside the bike helping them balance as they ride. Those kids get fewer bruises and meet the sidewalk head on fewer times.

Launching a new idea, product, or service is a lot like riding a bike, or maybe more like trying to ride a horse after you already know how to ride a bike.

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We have a grand idea. It’s a good plan. We’ve think through the audience, how we’ll reach them, and how we’ll connect them to each other and our grand service, amazing product or outstanding event. …

Whether we work alone or on a highly competitive corporate team, the hardest part of our work is to get a balanced appraisal of our idea before we take off on the ride.

Why is that?

Each of us is inside a system — a network, a business, a circle of family and friends. Shouldn’t we be able to find help there? Maybe not, because …

  • some people who helped build the idea — participated in the thinking. They can see how we got where we’re going, but not necessarily what we’ve missed.
  • some people in our system often want to maintain the equilibrium of our relationships. Unless we’re about to ride off a cliff or over broken glass, they’ll let us try what we might even when they’re not sure they can see any way it will work.
  • some people in our system have already decided about us and our ideas. We know the people in our system who always say, “that’s brilliant,” “that won’t work,” “we’ll see.” “just go for it,” and “where do I fit in?” to every idea we have.

The problem is that we can’t see the holes in a plan that we’ve made. What we need is the feedback of a naive intelligent customer who doesn’t know how we got to our idea.

Who Won’t Let You Fail

What every system needs is someone outside the thinking to come in at the end to say “Why that?” Imagine a guiding angel (not a devil’s advocate) who is 100% for seeing you and your team succeed with the highest quality result.

The businesses who do more of this are the ones who come to market with renewed confidence. Recently, Dell did a great job of seeking out this kind of advice with their #DellCap initiative. (thanks Dell!) Old Spice has been listening in lots of new ways. SOBCon owes much to so many people: Britt Raybould, Kevin Ferrasci O’Malley, Geoff Livingston, Sheila Scarborough, Chris Brogan, Becky McCray, Jason Falls, Carol Roth, Jonathan Fields, Stephen Smith, Chris Cree, and too many others to name– who have told us their truth while we were working on ideas.

What we need is someone who won’t let us fail. Do you have someone who will

  • keep you and your team focused on your end goal and your passion
  • hold you accountable for your goals.
  • stays out of the thinking and developing in order to question your decisions without prior knowledge of how you got to them.
  • point out hidden assumptions and risks
  • make sure you’re not underestimating your abilities or setting the bar too low.
  • tell you when you’re building for yourself rather than the people you serve.
  • won’t let you fail or limit reach and will tell when you’re in danger of doing so.
  • keep your confidence and trust as you talk about what your worries are.

We can’t be inside the thinking and outside the thinking at the same time. Having someone outside your system who won’t let you fail is the best investment a business can make. A few hours a month to check in on what’s planned can save thousands in time and resources invested in the wrong things because no one noticed the hidden assumption in your plan.

The question isn’t whether the outside source is paid. It’s whether the source can tell you the hard truth gently. The right source would risk your relationship rather than let you fail.

Some folks have it in their DNA that they can’t stand to watch anything fail. Find a few of them and get them on your team. Make them heroes. Listen to what they say or they won’t stay around long. What better safety net can a business have than people who won’t let them fail?

What companies do you know who have found a way to listen to folks outside the system who won’t let them fail?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

What’s More Important: Intention or Perception?

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A Guest Post by JennyDecki

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First, I’d like to thank Liz for letting me write a guest post. Even though we’ve only talked a few times and met once, if she called me at 3am and needed a ride home after an awesome party I wasn’t even invited to I would jump in my car and drive her home faster than, well, as fast as I could throw on some clothes and get there. So even if we don’t have coffee every other Sunday, I consider her a friend and I’m just happier knowing she’s part of my world. (Cue cheesy Disney music – bonus points for you if you know what Disney movie that is).

What’s More Important: Intention or Perception?

Today’s question is one most people don’t consider. Everyone keeps talking about transparency and authenticity and what you should do and who you should be but then you shouldn’t be this and you shouldn’t be that and only The Bloggess can cuss because she’s really, really funny to a lot of people when she does.

There are so many things that you’re being told you should be when you blog that you may not even be sure what your message is or who you are yet, I mean, I turned 35 last week and I *just* figured out what I want to be when I grow up. (35 is an interesting number. My kids think I’m a dinosaur but my grandmother thinks my life hasn’t begun yet. I’m both too old AND too young depending on the demographic being surveyed.)

Take this video as my exhibit A. I’m entered into a competition. I need to win. I need you (yes you, not some other reader, YOU!) to watch this,

 

NOW go to JennyDecki’s Mamavation Application and vote for @Jennydecki — Just check that box in the sidebar — once every 24 hours from now until 7/12 at 8pm CST. If I had my way you’d set an alarm on your phone to remind you.

It’s really important to me. If you watched the video and you already know why…

Authenticity Can Be Frightening

Now, obviously I’m not making up the fact that I am, in fact, fat. But transparency is making a video showing I’m fat. My message is what’s authentic, because even if I hired a plus-sized model with a less-large but still-overweight body to deliver that message it would still be authentic.

But here’s the kicker. The absolute scariest part of making that video is my fear of what other people would think of it. Because it doesn’t matter if you’re being transparent and it doesn’t matter if your message is authentic. What matters once you hit “Submit” is what other people will think of your video when they see it.

Putting out a video that says, “I’m fat, I want to lose weight, I want to win this contest to have intimate relations over the phone with a nutritionist.” is frightening.

There’s the fear that some jerk is going to send the video to all his friends, then they’ll all come calling with horrific comments, calling me names I haven’t heard since Jr. High and laughing at me.

… and Tests Your Beliefs

Even better, I’m at the edges of a few fat acceptance communities and some people believe that attempting to lose weight for the sake of losing weight is wrong. I know some of those people and they’re really great people.

… and I believe in size acceptance too, because – skinny or fat – people deserve dignity and the right to be judged on what happens when they open their mouth and talk to you, not when they open their mouth and put food into it.

The Moral of the Story: Be as sure as you can be about what you believe before you share it with the world. Once you share it you can’t take it back.You just have to know your message is yours and you are allowed to have opinions, make decisions, and share those with others. Even if you disagree with your neighbor, or Liz, or me, or the guy who runs the local Chamber of Commerce.

So help me out. Because if I don’t win — yeah I tried and that’s great — but I’m really more of a “winning” kind of person.

How to Help

I was told before I was chosen as a finalist, “You’ll have to do something amazing to win. Your social media contacts won’t be enough.” Please, even if you don’t support me…even if you don’t support weight loss…even if you don’t give care at all. Help me prove that social media is enough – because social media IS amazing.

Step 1: Go vote for me (@jennydecki) at http://bit.ly/teamjen

Step 2: Post on Facebook and Tweet for me: Watch the video and vote @jennydecki every 24 hours from now ’till 7/12 at 8pmCST http://bit.ly/teamjen PLZ RT!

Step 3: Send an email, write a blog post, or use the social media or traditional media avenue of your choice and link to this post so they can help me, too.

Step 4: Have we met? No? Feel free to follow me on Twitter @jennydecki and I’ll follow you back. I’m sure it will be a pleasure to meet you.

Is Intention More Important than Perception?

Of course intention is most important because it’s the only one you have ANY control over. Perception? You have to let the chips fall where they may. If you write things with the intention of trying to create a particular perception and you fail, you can’t really stand up and say, “Oh, I want a do-over because that wasn’t really me.” Nope.

Better to be stuck with people knowing you for who you are than people not even knowing you and still thinking you’re a jackass. The best part is when you are yourself and you stand up for something you find support in the oddest places. Like here. Or here.

And when a fat woman figures out her passion is health and there’s a runner trapped under all that excess weight, what the hell other option does she have?

Need permission? You have mine. I give you permission to stand up for something. To stand in between a rock and a hard place and just stand there. Own it.

Thank you for your time, I appreciate it more than you know. Thanks again, Liz. Don’t lose my number, you may need it after a party someday!

——
If you don’t know JennyDecki, you should. Besides being a brilliant marketer, Jenny also blogs.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

#DellCAP: Have You Got the Right Model for Your Ideal Customers?

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Have You Really Thought about the People You Want to Reach?

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At the recent #DellCAP Days meeting in Austin, we — 15 customers and C-Level folks from operations and customer service — had an interesting discussion about sending customer service offshore.

When asked about it, the Chief-of-Staff gave a most honest and simple response that they felt that people wouldn’t be willing to pay the higher price for computers it would cost to keep those services in the U.S.

DELL is going for operational excellence in delivering there product. Operational excellence is a low-cost, reliable product with less customization and lower service.

The question came up … Is that attracting the market you want?

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Every market falls into three tiers:

  • operational excellence … think Southwest Airlines
    An operational excellence model attracts customers who care most about price. Their loyal is lower. A second high value needs to hold them when a still lower price becomes attractive.
  • customer relationship … think Zappos
    A customer relationship model attracts customers who care about their individual experience. They want customization that suits their lifestyle and their values. They’re willing to pay more for what they value — service or commitment that is tailored to them.
  • product innovation … think Apple
    A product innovation market attracts early adopters and prestige buyers. This group is willing to spend more to get high performance and to be the first on the block who owns the shiny new object. They are also willing to pay a premium price for a one-of-a-kind experience.

As you can see each tier’s model attracts a different customer.

Whether we’re DELL or a solo service professional, we need to make sure our price / value model matches the customers and the market we can reach and those customers we want to attract to us. If you want fiercely loyal customers,

  • Know why people are buying what you offer and know that price will always drive your loyalty relationships. If you attract people who buy for price, they will leave if you no longer hold the lowest price in the market. Build in other values to protect your loyalty. Southwest has outstanding “fun” as their price value-added.
  • Incorporate barriers to entry to reduce the threats to your value-added. Zappos has established a “story of service” that underscores their outstanding commitment to relationships and empowered, happy employees who serve individual customers in unique and personal ways.
  • Be the “first hired and first trusted” to serve your most loyal fans. Value what your customers value. Apple doesn’t appear to let other price points or other offers change their dedication to building in “childlike wonder” into every innovate design they offer. They also realize that their most raving fan- customers will forgive a few glitches to be the first to own the newest Apple products.

All three tiers can offer great customers for the business who serves them.

Have you got the right model for your ideal customers?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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A Dozen $100,000 Brand Ideas for Celebrating Our Heroes Through Social Media

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poppy

I’ve been reading about the history of Memorial Day, before it became about blow-out sales and backyard bar-b-ques.

And the words I’ve found take me back to when my mom still called it “Decoration Day.” She’d buy a paper poppy from the man at the VFW to put in the button hole of my coat. Then she’d take me with her to put flowers on the graves of those we love who lay sleeping while we could still stand, reflect, kneel to say, “thank you.”

Memorial Day is about gratitude, reconciliation, and honoring heroes who paid the ultimate price. They gave and we got.

Rebranding Memorial Day

In his series for Fast Company, Steve McCallion says:

So far we’ve explored how Memorial Day lost its meaning, but how can we get it back? How can we remember Memorial Day in a way that is authentic and relevant today? In this era of instant gratification, can we come together as a nation to recognize the sacrifices that have been made for our freedoms?

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Click through on the image for his marvelous ideas on how to rebrand to remind us what Memorial Day means.

A Dozen $100,000 Brand Ideas for Celebrating Our Heroes Through Social Media

Social media is about honoring our heroes and connecting people, isn’t it? If anyone knows how to do that we do … big companies, little companies, individuals don’t need to do much to put the celebrating and gratitude back into remembering those who sacrificed for our freedom.

Here are a few ideas …

  1. Apple might sell a limited yellow version of the iPhone — or simply choose any yellow iPod product — to donate a portion of sales to hire a social media team to help the White House Commission on Remembrance or The Memorial Day Foundation get their message out next year.
  2. 3M might build a Post-it Note Quote Community by inviting friends and families to publish quotes of their fallen heroes.

    My son would always smile and say, “There’s lots of apple pies, but I’ve only got one mother.”

  3. Berskshire Hathaway might find a volunteer team of social media mavens among their thousands of employees. If that team put out a penny-match challenge, I bet they could pitch a penny campaign that would travel across Twitter and fire through Facebook. Perhaps the collected money go toward health insurance or college scholarships for children of fallen soldiers.
  4. Johnson & Johnson already has communities of nurses and caregivers. They could send out a call via their site, Twitter, and Facebook. They could connect with nurses and caregivers who have shared the final hours with fallen soldiers. Imagine the wealth of history in those stories. If they partnered with the VFW or the Military Channel, that content could make an incredible interview series.
  5. Kodak or Polaroid could build a YouTube channel or a flickr collection for customers and employees to retell the stories of fallen soldiers. With the help of Scholastic, they package them as primary source materials with lesson plans for teachers to share with kids studying history. Teachers could upload comments, videos, and new ideas to add to the community.
  6. Kraft Foods or ConAgra could build the recipe book of heroes. How hard would be to use social media to ask the families of fallen soldiers to share the favorite recipes of loved ones who served our country? Imagine if the Food Channel cooked each recipe and shared the videos on YouTube?
  7. Hallmark Cards or American Greetings could invite the families of fallen soldiers to share cards they received from our heroes and tell the stories behind the cards. Suppose they tweeted a new free Hero ECard for a year?
  8. Starbucks or Panera Bread might print the pictures and a simple memorial statement on the cups that hold their coffee and tea. Folks could Tweet and Facebook their nominations.
  9. Lands End or L.L.Bean could offer a yellow ribbon discount to honor fallen soldiers. Instead of a promo code they might ask for 140 characters in tribute to our heroes. The promo codes could forward to Twitter, FriendFeed, and Facebook.
  10. Sony Music or Universal might put together a collection of songs for heroes by celebrity artists and donate the proceeds to HireHeroes. The songs could be on blip.fm and tweeted. We could DJ a Friday night hero Twitter party.
  11. Netflix could partner with the major studios to sponsor a $1 day of movies and documentaries about our heroes. Ambassadors from families could help chose the appropriate titles and be featured as recommending them. MailOurMilitary.com and milblogging.com might help promote a cause like this one. Netflix might challenge corporations and foundations to add matching funds to support grants to families of fallen heroes.
  12. Southwest Airlines, Marriott, and CNN might partner to offer veterans incredible deals to gather together in D.C. on Memorial Day 2011 to share the stories of fallen heroes.

What would the companies and brands get? They’d get the respect and loyalty of employees and customers who honor our heroes. People remember generosity that connects them to authentic, relevant meaning.

Any nation that does not honor its heroes will not long endure. – Abraham Lincoln

Isn’t that also true of our businesses?

I know you probably see a thousand ways to expand on each of these ideas — ways that each could be tweaked or twisted to fit another business. Take ’em and use ’em. I’d love to hear how you might re-invent an idea or what new ideas came to mind while you were reading.

How will you remember our heroes?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

I’m a proud affiliate of

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What My Boss Doesn’t Get About Social Media

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My Failure to Sell SOBCon2010 to My CEO
A Guest Post by Old Lady Swenson
(not her real name)

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I’m coming off of a failed sale of SOBCon2010 to my CEO. I thought I had done a stellar job of selling the event and investment by outlining the ROI from the last event I attended, providing detailed event information and correlating it to his business, writing a blog post as part of BlogItEarnIt to get a discount and even facilitating a phone discussion between my CEO and Liz. With all of this, his response was, “I just don’t see the direct benefit to the company.” As the result, the lovely Liz Strauss asked me to share a bit about “What my Boss Doesn’t Get About Social Media” anonymously. It goes something like this.

I’m marketing communications manager at a small company and formerly occupied agency roles at two different integrated marketing agencies. I’m a practitioner and eternal student of social media (as part of broader strategy); have developed and implemented various social media activities for clients in both B2C and B2B markets, as well as the organization in which I currently work.

When I was recruited to my current position, I had not yet had the pleasure of working for the entrepreneur. This excited me because of the promised opportunity to innovate and own a big chunk of the company’s mar comm responsibilities. Social media implementation was a large part of the discussion during the interview process and the CEO played very excited about exploring this new territory.

What came to be shortly after my hire was the elimination of the president (my champion and broad thinker within the company), a modified compensation plan that revolved around non-innovative tactics and an overall unsuccessful road that would ensure failed marketing execution and poor quality leads for the sales people because of the CEO’s one-track vision of how to bring home the bacon.

While by no means an exhaustive list, these are some of the things my boss doesn’t ‘get’ about social media, marketing and business that make my job and success very difficult:

He thinks his products and services are God’s gift and that everyone should want them. What my CEO doesn’t understand is better said by my buddy Chris Brogan, “No one cares about your dumb thing.” My CEO believes that pushing one-way messages out is very effective and will get leads in the funnel. Sadly, at one time, this was true because the communication model in place supported a one-to-many distribution. This is no longer true or particularly effective in most circumstances. What is completely unapparent to him is that the quality of the leads obtained in this way are significantly less valuable than if we created a central communications hub and supporting distribution channels that make the user experience simple and actionable for a wide range of users.

Conversations yield. People no longer have to be talked at. The people have the power because we now live in a world of democratized communication. The people have the same publishing tools and more robust communication means than most professional media. The CEO uses these tools himself (EBAY to purchase his vehicles, Trip Advisor to plan trips, Consumer Reports to source for information, etc.), but doesn’t realize that others use these tools similarly to determine their potential purchase of his product or service.

Content, not SEO reigns supreme. The main communication strategy (set in place before my arrival) is to have two Web sites in the top five of Google. While successful in that criteria, the conversion rate is horrible because the sites are optimized for the company and product, not people and what may be most useful to them. When people search and land on any Web site, they are able to make decisions based on the content provided, ease of use and the ability to easily take action. If they don’t find these things they will leave and find it elsewhere. Choosing to be number one with few conversations, rather than give your customers the most simple and effective path to your solution is silly.

This is a much longer story and there is so much more that ‘my boss doesn’t get about social media,’ but what’s been a great take away for me moving forward is:

Social media as it pertains to the organization, is not about the tools and what can be done, but about a culture that has; a sincere desire to learn, grow, be uncomfortable, potentially fail, want to truly connect its customers, and above all, the continued willingness to do these things to deepen connections and relationships that yield. Upon this, something great can be built.

I look forward to finding that place someday.

A big thanks to Liz for spending 30 minutes on the phone with my CEO trying to educate him on the value of my attendance of SOBCon and for everything elseJ.

—–
Old Lady Swenson (not her real name) works as a social media director for a midwest company that’s trying to grow through lead generation. As you might guess, her job is difficult.

Thanks OLS for the insights into managing up!


What doesn’t YOUR boss get about social media?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Buy the ebook. Learn the art of online conversation.

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Social Media Club Chicago Hosts SOBCon Opening Party

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It’s great when your hometown stand behind you …

The Chicago Social Media Club is doing just that.

I’m thrilled to announce that again this year, Social Media Club Chicago has offered to host an Opening Party for SOBCon2010! Terry and I will be there as will many of the speakers, panelists, and out-of-town attendees. It will be like a super-tweetup with a great conversation and an after party to boot!

Come see the great views! Meet the great people! Get in the spirit of Chicago Social Media!

Here’s a look at the 2009 SOBCon and Social Media Club Chicago event video.

We won’t make any promises – yet – about who might show up. Let’s just say that this might very well be the most connected night of your life.

5:30 – 6:15 Check-in and Networking

6:15 – 7:15 Program

7:15 – 8:00 Socializing Networking

After party – in planning stages

Sign up now so that you don’t miss a minute of meeting anyone who might be there!

Thank you, Barbara, Jeff, Amy and all of SMCC for honoring us again!